I totally agree but am wondering whether all out attack is our only serious hope against the likes of Spurs. Not just throwing men forward but pressing up at least to the halfway line. Clyne has plenty of speed and I would be tempted to bring in Mayuka on the right. even on the left if he can play there. Left back has to be Fox or at the worst Seaborne if fox isn't available. I don't think we would gain from chucking Shaw in, when he will be faced by Lennon, as he would be on a hiding to nothing though if he came through it he would gain immensely from the experience. Reeves has been mentioned but if he was picked I would hope it was to stiffen our midfield area. JWP in my mind would come before him. So who do we play with on Sunday? I am struggling to select my team but guess it could look something like :- Gazzaniga/Davis Clyne, Fonte, Yoshida, Fox/Seaborne Mayuka, Davis, JWP, Schneiderlin, Lallana Lambert Subs, Davis/Gazza, Richardson, Stevens, Seaborne/Fox, J Rod, Puncheon, Hooiveldt
I would like Mayuka to get a go as well. Have to assume Cork and Lee aren't fit so would go with your midfield and attack. Maybe start with the Villa formation at the back if Fraser is fit?
I have always liked Frazer as a dependable defender but can remember a few occasions when his crosses led to goals. Trouble at the moment I believe and hope is that we still have not seen what Nigel rates as our best eleven.
That has to be right. Ramirez is a gimme and at the back we dont know what he considers his best 4 are but injuries have prevented us finding out.
I think the loss of Gaston has had an impact on us which is larger than expected due to our endless stream of injuries.
So Nigel says after the game that he deserves all the blame, and now Lallana comes and says the players deserve all the blame. At least it shows that everyone is working for each other and trying to protect each other... I think. Personally against Spurs I'd like to see us play this line-up: Boruc Clyne Yoshida Fonte Fox Schneiderlin Davis Lallana Puncheon Lambert Mayuka I have several reasons for this and I will bore you with all of them. The main reason is versatility, I believe this would allow us to play both a 4-3-3 (And yes, an actual 4-3-3 not a 4-5-1/4-2-3-1 whatever) and a 4-4-2, the two best formations in our arsenal. I think Spurs' threat will entirely depend on who they play up front, Defoe or Adebayor, or both. If they play Defoe, they will be looking to play through us, and this would lead me to prefer a 4-3-3. We would have three central players, Morgan, Davis and Lallana, the first two would sit slightly deeper when we were in possession, but when we are out of it, Davis and Lallana would play slightly ahead of Schneiderlin who would be plonked on whoever's playing off of Defoe. They are dangerous down the wings from both attacking positions and their full-backs, but with Defoe it would be very much a non-factor as balls in the box should and would be stopped from getting anywhere near him. The only threats of their wide players would be from cutting inside, which I would task Davis and Lallana with stamping out on their respective sides of the pitch, whilst the player on the opposite side would come inside to consolidate the middle and not leave Morgan isolated. This would leave us with three attacking players mostly free of large defensive responsibility, Mayuka at LW, Lambert central and Puncheon at RW. These players would stay mostly forward giving us a constant attacking presence and threat, and press high, not allowing Spurs to settle in possession on our home patch, and this would also hopefully mean their full-backs would have to be defensively responsible, nullifying their threat and a large part of Spurs' threat as a whole. I believe if we played this way we would be largely safe at the back apart from on counter-attacks, and that would just mean that we'd need our full-backs to stay at home more, and when they do go for Davis to sit back with Morgan who is just playing his natural game. By forcing their full-backs to stay back, they would have to try and play through the middle of us for the most part, especially with Defoe up front, with three central midfielders all doing their jobs, and three attacking players all pressing high (would want them to seriously put a shift in with J-Rod and either Guly or Gaston/Chung, if they get back to enough fitness, to come on to introduce fresh legs), I believe we would largely disrupt their possession, whilst still carrying an attacking threat and of course I don't think this is a magic set-up that would guarantee us a win against a very good Spurs side, I think that would put us in a good position where we could take something from the game. If they play Adebayor, we would play a 4-4-2, or a 4-4-1-1, whatever you want to call it, with Mayuka and Lambert up top, Lallana left mid, Puncheon right, and obviously Davis and Schneiderlin central. Adebayors aerial threat would mean we would have to cut out their wing play as best we could, so Lallana and Puncheon would have to play very responsibly and cover their full-backs a lot. The rest of the system is fairly simple and would just play your standard 4-4-2, with Davis the more adventurous of the CMs, and Mayuka feeding off of Lambert, a nice combination of pace and power up top that would still enable us to carry enough of a threat to compensate a defensive-minded midfield. If they play both Adebayor and Defoe, then I would be fairly worried, but would probably play either of those two formations depending on the game situation. And if neither Fox or Richardson are fit then we may as well forfeit.
In with you on this, putting the like of Kelvin/ seaborne would destroy an already frail team. It's obvious that our defence isn't up to the task at all but I feel they would perform better in a defensive 5 home or away. We need to be playing 5 at the back with wings back ie fox and clyne. I think the fundamental thing would be to split up hooiveld and Fonte as when next to each other they are nothing short of disastrous! Putting in yoshida in the middle he will at least organise the rest. Also like to see 4 across the midfield with lallana floating and lambert playing solo role. Think this keeps us solid...ok we may lose some goal threat but we can attack and will still score especially at SMS.
Great post Mikey it was going really well until the last line! Agree though we need fit full backs or we are in real trouble against Spurs!
Some good news. Spurs fans seem to think they will field a strong side in Europe oin Thursday. Her's hoping for some severe flight delays!
Indeed, I like to go into any game under any circumstances with hope and optimism, but if our only fit full-back options against Spurs are Clyne, Reeves, Dickson, Stephens or even Shaw then I would give us almost no chance without some magic happening. Nothing against Reeves, Dickson, Stephen or Shaw, but they have approximately zero experience between them and with the quality of wingers that Spurs possess they would have a field day unless we did something really drastic.
Spurs results after European games: Spurs 2-1 QPR Spurs 2-0 Villa However they were outplayed by QPR for much of the game. And they are away to Maribor on Thursday so at least they have to travel a long distance.
Doh. Considering how Lambert drifts deep, links play etc. then it should be Rodriguez behind. However I agree with the 4-4-1-1 idea. Lallana MUST get back on the wing and not holding hands with Schneiderlin in front of the defence. Gazzaniga Clyne, Fonte, Yoshida, Fox/Shaw Davis, JWP, Schneiderlin, Lallana Lambert Rodriguez Argue all you like about Shaw not being good enough. Better to play a left back than a centre back out of position (unless they can actually play full back like Gallas etc)
Many funny things can happen in a single game of football. I remember Chris Baird playing a blinder in defence with little experience and one of those untried players could easily (well maybe not that easily) turn up trumps. Spurs have an off day and we play as we did mostly against United and you never know. Pigs may fly but we do have hope.
Of course, I may have been too strong in writing us off almost completely, but it would certainly put is in a very very awkward situation.
Your post contradicts itself and Lambert would play upfront as 1) He is stronger than Rodriguez . 2) He can head a ball better than Rodriguez . 3) Rodriguez would run off the headers and knockdowns . 4) Lambert can play with his back to the goal . 5) Rodriguez is faster than Lambert . You would create a huge gap between the two , doh whats that all about
No it doesn't and yours contradicts our style of play. You seem to have gotten confused as to which team was Saints on Saturday and are doing the typical 'big strong guy = target man' linked with the 'knock down' that Lawrenson and co wheel out every week. If you watch Saints games we are piss poor when Lambert is the target man. When we are at our best he is often in the no 10role. Maybe not where he is supposed to be from his prematch instructions but that is where he and Lallana do the damage with others then moving in front of them, not from knock downs, from ball playing. Hence DOH we are not a hoof team, that is hen we look really bad.
